Saapatu sodhanai: Some experiments with food

Whenever a fellow Tamil sees another one, the inevitable question would be "Saapteengala?" (have you eaten?). This is seen as a mark of politeness and care for the other person. Food is so important to Indians that it is seen as a god in the form of Annalakshmi. At home and during college days, good food was easy to come by, and like most young children, my brother and I were poor eaters. We had to be constantly badgered to eat things other than junk food and curd rice. But as adolescents, we began to develop a taste for food and in general, both of us like to eat food.
Cooking on the other hand can be time consuming, inflexible and boring on some occasions. It is safe to say that there is not a single person in the whole world who enjoys doing the dishes everyday. After being blissfully unaware of the side of cooking which does not involve eating the cooked stuff, I was thrown into the deep end once I began graduate studies in a country half way around the globe. I had sure made the occasional dosa and cut vegetables to get some pocket money at my home, but doing everything from buying groceries to throwing the trash was a first. It was at this time that I used to dream out loud to my flatmates about how awesome it would be if food could come in a pill. Just swallow the pill, get all the essential nutrition and never worry about the dishes. Although I enjoyed cooking for the most part, it would have been great to get a quick, nutritious, cheap and filling meal without much effort. Last year, I came across this blog
http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298

As a fellow engineer and a man of his age, I could relate to many things in that blog. What Rob was proposing was a food of the future, a one recipe fits all, all the time, forever solution. Being a student of science, I was sceptical about his claims. What if it contains trace amounts of harmful chemicals? What if something is missing? How would the bacteria in our gut respond to the same food being ingested all the time? I knew that this simple solution was not going to work consistently for everyone in the long term. But there was a lot of excitement about this idea once they got serious about it and started a kickstarter campaign to raise money. The days of dreaming out loud were a couple of years behind me, but those ideas were coming back again. I realized that the little kid who used to watch Jetsons and marvel at the technology, including the food pills was still inside me. I was willing to part with enough money for a week's purchase ($65) of their product--Soylent. The product is named tongue in cheek after a Charlton Heston film Soylent Green, which is set in a dystopian future New York where people consume chemical wafers called Soylent as their primary source of food. The other idea behind ordering Soylent was that I was confident about my body recovering from the shock--if any--very quickly. I kept waiting for a year and four months for the formula to get finalized and shipped. There were tweaks to the formula, beta testing, logistical issues and many other things that all supporters had to put up with. In the mean time, there was (there still is) a huge DIY community with a very active internet forum where people started to make their own recipes following Rob's--which he had made public. I decided that I could not match their levels of enthusiasm and let others do the hard work for me.

Still, I don't think I was ever as excited as this, about a package arriving at my door step. By then my flat mates and a few other friends had also heard enough from me. I was even planning on a generous tip to the FedEx guy had he not bolted after dropping off the package. The experiment started on Sunday, September 21, and I was weighing 74kg at that time. I am around 179cms tall and consider myself a healthy adult who eats healthy for the most part, with stupendously mediocre athletic abilities like running a 25 minute 5k or benching 125 lbs on good days. To make one day's worth of Soylent, all one has to do is to mix the powder, the oil that comes in a vial, add water and shake vigorously. They also provide a large airtight pitcher that can hold all of this. One day's Soylent provides 2000 cals, all the necessary nutrients needed by the body as recommended by the FDA for this caloric value. Each day, a vast majority of us will not be getting all of these nutrients, and will sometimes be consuming excess sodium, sugar and other usual suspects. During the course of the week, I saw a few noticeable changes immediately. There was a general increase of feeling light and aware. The night's sleep was very effective, resulting in mornings when I felt a bit more energetic. I never had to take an afternoon nap on my desk and did not feel lethargic after lunch. By Friday the 26th my hair was feeling softer. It could have very well been my new conditioner, but the observation was unmistakable. I have since had a hair cut and been unable to discern anything useful about the state of that observation. Drinking Soylent satisfies hunger almost instantly. It is rich in fiber and tastes like "protein-shake-gruel", which to me is a perfectly acceptable taste. Soylent contains a bit less sodium than recommended for a 2K calorie diet, so I added a teaspoon of salt to the concoction on two days. But there was no noticeable symptoms of low sodium the entire week. The 2K calories were not sufficient for me though, and I had to eat a peanut butter sandwich or 2 bananas on a few days before bed time. Apart from a light game of badminton on Friday, I did not do any physical exercise due to my slightly lower calorie intake and because of staying away from my protein shake that week. On Friday, my weight was 73kg which is not a change from which any significant conclusions can be drawn.

 

On Sunday, September 28, the experiment ended with a proper desi lunch at the nearby temple. My prediction was that I would get senti about getting back to conventional food, but that did not happen. The food was very good, followed by a nap after the meal, and we got back to making industrial amounts of sambar later that night. After a bit more thinking, I ordered a month's supply of Soylent 5 days ago which arrived today. So, am I planning to replace all of my food with Soylent? No. Am I going to extend this week long experiment and live exclusively on Soylent for a month? No. But am I going to stash many bags of Soylent in my office? Yes. Am I going to cook or eat out only once or twice a week? Yes. Am I going to make Soylent shakes with fruits, protein powder, chocolate syrup and the rest of the A-team? Yes. Do I think this the food of the future? Yes and no. Yes because it takes a very scientific approach to food. It is "taste-wise edible", filling, nutritious and does not go bad. Remember grains rotting in FCI godowns? Attempts like Soylent could be another step in tackling other big problems like hunger and malnutrition. Since the food is so carefully calibrated, it could potentially help people with medical conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. Diseases that are primarily caused by lifestyle choices could be tackled by experts, using these diets as a baseline. Instead of consuming massive amounts of white rice as a baseline, why not consume this as the baseline? All this being said, and like I said at the outset, food has been an integral part of every culture. Apart from nutrition and taste buds, the olfactory and social component of food is equally important which is totally missing in Soylent. People view the body not just a machine, but as something more than that. Some view the body as a temple, and treating food simply as a fuel to the machine might even be offensive to them. But until my current supply lasts, I will not have to take maggi for lunch or eat at the nearest soggy sandwich outlet.

Find out more here:

http://www.soylent.me/